Anthems to the Weary at Dusk

Today please enjoy an interview with Finnish Black Metal warriors Azaghal and, as always, the usual spate of playlists. Some of you may have missed last week’s post due to family festivities and the fact we were a day late, so in case you missed them, please peruse our recent reviews of Abominable Putridity, Abominant, Bell Witch, Dysentery, Humanity Delete, Manticore, Sparrows, Void Moon. Sorry we’re low on newer reviews for tonight’s post but not to worry, we’ll be fully recovered from stuffing our faces and ready to write for next Tuesday’s offering. Keep posting those playlists, and get your pals to do the same! We’re loving scoping your suggestions and hope you’re digging ours as well; most of all, we’re happy as hell at the discourse that’s growing as a result. See ya in seven… -Jim

Jim – An Evil Shade of Grey is one of my favorite Swedish DM albums. That album has such a unique sound compared to the other Swedish DM bands of the era. How is the new Borknagar? The last thing I have picked up by these guys was Quintessence. I gradually lost interest after Garm left the band, not that the following releases were bad (actually quite good), but I always preferred Garm’s unique vocal style on the first couple albums. I have however, heard the new album is good and may get around to checking it out if that is the case.

Marty – Harbinger of Metal double lp….that is pretty cool. I only have the cd. I love the Dunkelheit cover on that album. JD Kimball was an amazing vocalist. Omen is such an overlooked band. Heavy Metal in the purest old school sense. Much like Manilla Road, everyone should check out Omen if they haven’t already. Battle Cry and Warning of Danger will instantly make any metal collection better. Classic stuff.

Anymore my playlists are far from cutting edge. I guess I tend to lean towards the tried and true as opposed to hearing the latest and greatest. Not that I don’t pick up new stuff…I am just much more selective as to what I pick up and spend time with. I have too many albums in my collection that I listen to for the first few weeks after I pick them up, but 5 years down the road they are collecting dust in my collection.

This list bound to change as there is a new Igorrr & Therion this month. Joy! The Arch/Matheos is banging don’t ya think, Marty? It makes me want to break my Awaken The Guardian and awaken the damn neighbors.

If you feel like checking out some underground metal please surf over to my bands various websites and check us out. Prepare you mind for Dirtyhookerbeast!

Urd: Marty kept mentioning how good it was, and though I had never really given Borknagar much attention before, I’m glad I did this time. I really enjoyed ICS Vortex’s voice on the album; his clean singing sits well atop the bombastic production that is the Borkin’ style. The ultra-clean orchestrated stuff isn’t usually my cup of tea, but I’ll come back to this every so often when I want a change.

An Evil Shade of Grey: Definitely! Interesting atmospherics, especially for that era, and the insane string-squeaking on the title track is awesome!

Good calls on Voivod and Kreator – Terrible Certainty will always be my favorite album from them, Nothingface is a classic. -Jim

Will definitely check out Dirtyhookerbeast (love the name, by the way). *Love* Punishment for Decadence. I remember the first time I saw the video for Masked Jackal in the ’80s – my jaw dropped at the scales Ron Royce was pulling off on that bass! -Jim

Will definitely check out Dirtyhookerbeast (love the name, by the way). *Love* Punishment for Decadence. I remember the first time I saw the video for Masked Jackal in the ’80s – my jaw dropped at the scales Ron Royce was pulling off on that bass! -Jim

Yes! Hammers of Misfortune. Now I know two people that appreciate that record (including myself :). A challenging listen, but ultimately worth it. What are your thoughts on Royal Thunder? They’re getting a lot of hype, but I just hear Clutch w/ female vocals. What’s your take on them?

You and I both seem to have a shared obsession with Binah and Indesinence’s latest \m/ Awesome. I have Varathron’s Stygian Forces of Scorn, good stuff! I haven’t heard Verminous, but I’m going to track that down on name alone… -Jim

I really enjoyed that Royal Thunder album but I have been kind of a sucker for these throwback bands. I understand what you mean by Clutch sound. Kinda sounds like a groovier Clutch with the lead singer from The Distillers a bit lol. I enjoy it.

Begrime Exemious – Impending Funeral of Man & Visions of the Scourge
Filthy raw black death from Canada, black blood dripping from every riff.
Behemoth – Zos Kia Cultus
Staggering Morbid Angel worship.
Overkill – The Years of Decay
I love Overkill. Blitz and the boys have been shot down a lot during their lengthy career but undeservedly so. Honest, don’t-give-a-fuck workmanship thrash with a punky edge and a knack for anthemic tunes. E! Limination! \m/

Apart from this I’ve listened to a lot of freaky jazz lately (my other big love), but I won’t burden you guys with that… 😉

Forward apologies for thinking my thoughts are important enough to share on this forum, m, but I feel compelled to share:

Doom metal, the four play of death metal.

I think this sentiment because its how I handle all this new wave of doom coming out. I get it and think things like evokens latest are great, but is it just me, after hearing one long pure doom song I get too depressed and have to listen to something that mixes it up a little bit. What’s with this tremendous upsurge in pure doom or funeral bands ? Indesinence is the best I think because they understand that singularity in approach is boring and they add other rhythm elements. This makes the whole album listenable.

If I am sitting at home alone with an album, I do tend to follow up a Doomy sadness exploration with something of a less somber timber and tempo for balance. However, for long car rides/traffic/etc (ie, when dealing with folks is a constant), a full course of Doom can be appropriate for me, as the pace and tone keep my mood in a level place. Since in the age of electrons all styles of Metal have increased in visibility as a whole, I just think participation has blossomed exponentially in the various subgenres by both the oldschoolers and the new bleeders. If we’re talking journalistic coverage of Metal, I completely agree that this year in particular has had Doom bands at center-stage … maybe this years returns by Inverloch (disembowelment dudes) and Evoken have spearheaded that tendency. Marty, be interested in your thoughts on this … -Jim.

Everything goes in cycles and doom is no different. I think the high exposure of bands like Mournful Congregation get people “excited” for doom again and they start seeking out the quality stuff. There is a lot of quality out there actually, yet it can very easily burn folks out as the doom aesthetic tends to blur the stylistic lines between bands. I go in spurts with doom. Right now it seems all I have been listening to is doom (New MDB, Evoken, Candlemass, Tempestuous Fall (GODLY DOOM), BUT I have been listening to an unusual amount of power metal to probably offset the gloom. Unisonic, Helloween, Iron Savio, Demons and Wizards, Iced Earth, Fates Warning/Arch/Matheos… the older I get, the more I greatly appreciate a good pitch singer and the more upbeat melody has been good for my brain during some troubling times.

Regarding Overkill… Man I worshiped this band as a teenager. I still do and they continue to put out worthwhile music. Under the Influence was the only real so-so album from that era (Sid Flack wasn’t a suitable replacement for Rat Skates), but the Gustafson years were indeed my fave. Loved them through Horrorscope (RULES), then they faltered a bit. Feel the Fire and Taking over are classics.

Non metal stuff… I love me some older Industrial music. Been spinning the hell out of Front Line Assembly’s Caustic Grip. Goth stuff never leaves my payer long either. Bands like Fields of the Nephilim, older Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, etc.

But on a “sorta” metal note…. Dan Swano’s 1st Nightingale release, The Breathing Shadow… oh man…. after all these years it STILL rules. Love his voice on the album and his proggy take on gothic music. If you love Edge of Sanity and the mans massive catalog of music, this one should not be missed.

Many interesting conversation points here. I constantly change moods of music I listen to from listen to listen, whether it be metal or not. I have always been a fan of many different genres of metal and can’t say I solely focus on one particular subgenre, even though there are some I like better than others. I listen to nonmetal music more now than at any other point in life, not because I like metal any less, but more to do with the fact that I need to hear different moods and ideas being reflected in music. I can no longer listen to raw black metal album after raw black metal album…same with brutal death metal, suffocating doom metal, etc. I still like all of these subgenres but I go numb to it if I constantly listen to it. I find if I have a run of listening to “lighter” metal or nonmetal then return to the darker, depressing stuff the music has much more impact. The old cliche, variety is the spice of life…at least for my listening habits.

Regarding the surge of doom metal….I can’t really speak on whether or not doom has had a recent upswing just because I don’t really follow metal scenes as closely as I used to, but I wouldn’t be entirely surprised if the subgenre did gain some momentum. Doom has obviously been around in various forms for many years, but never really had a movement such as the NWOBHM, 80’s Thrash, late 80’s/early 90’s DM, and 90’s BM. IMO stuff like death metal, black metal has been taken to it’s sonic limits of brutality, speed, grimness, etc. that people might be looking to go the other direction and slow it down a bit and let things breathe. I don’t think that doom will ever be as “popular” as the aforementioned subgenres, partly because there isn’t a gimmick with it and partly because it is in some ways a more cerebral type of music that can require a little more patience to get into. Not something a 17 year old full of piss and vinegar wants to sit and listen to on a Friday night. Anyway, I enjoy doom in it’s many varieties.

Speaking of doom, there is a cool documentary called Such Hawks Such Hounds that maybe some of you have seen before. It covers the US doom, stoner, and other related organic sounding subgenres. It doesn’t really have anything to do with stuff like death doom or funeral doom, but focuses on bands like Pentagram, St. Vitus, Sleep, The Melvins and many others. I stumbled onto it a little over a year ago on youtube and forgot about it until I ran into it again the other day. You can watch the whole thing on youtube. Anyway, I found it interesting, but I like a lot of that style of music.

One more thing, Overkill is still a killer band. I have a lot of respect for them for sticking to their guns over the years and putting out fairly consistent albums. All these thrash bands disappear and then get back together when there was a reusrgence in popularity with thrash metal in the middle part of the last decade, not to mention all of the new retro thrash bands, which I have no time for. All the while Overkill stayed to together kept putting out albums and as far as I am conerned showed everyone else how it is still done on Ironbound…I love that album. Electric Age is good to, but I like Ironbound a bit more.

Good to see some appreciation for Blitz and DD. As far as I’m concerned they were never less than solid, and their latest albums still kick my behind.

My non-metal preferences; well, after being a diehard metalhead at 16 my musical taste broadened rapidly. In my CD collection Sadus is next to Sade, Paradise Lost next to Charlie Parker and Baroness next to Bartok. Lately what attracts me in music is lack of compromise, music that demands attention and involvement from the listener to be fully appreciated and isn’t afraid to shock or scare. Extreme metal like funeral doom, black and insanely technical death (Cryptopsy!!!), atonal modern classical like Penderecki or Pärt and right now I’m in a freaky jazz (meaning: free jazz) phase; Art Ensemble Of Chicago, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo smith and also the dense, electric junglefunk of 70’s Miles Davis.

In the end though… I’ll always return to the crunching chug of METAL!!! \m/

Good viewpoints on Doom. I was genuinely curious what you all thought. I usually don’t engage in Metal blogs, but as Jim stated above, everyone here has matured to a similar point that we call kinda of see eye to eye in various shades and shapes, or at least appreciate what we all have to say, not just validating one’s own tastes. I am glad this spurred some more interesting conversation.

I have love Mournful Congregations ‘Book of Kings’ and Evoken’s latest, but I can’t get through an entire album listen. I think the music affects me too much. I did listen to Mournful’s all the way through once, really loud on my home stereo. I lied on the floor and just stared off into space and listened to the entire thing. I honestly felt it scarred my mind or spirit or something. It was an incredible experience, but not one I want to do again. I myself am a lover of Metal in general and many of its subs, most certainly Death and Black. But agreed with I think Shawn’s habits, I can’t just listen to a couple of 2nd wave Black albums in a row. I might listen to Burzum then through on something totally different but that captures the same ultimate vibe.

That is why I have been so much into the Manilla Road, because it is Metal but so different than what I normally listen too, but captures much of the same essence. Now that is special. …

Patrick… thanks for your thoughts on the Blog and commenting on, for lack of a better term, the “maturity” of those choosing to communicate with each other here. Jim and I both take that as a huge compliment, and I have always been proud of this fact for all of Worm Gear’s existence. Even when Scott ran the message board we used to have, everyone was real respectful on it and we’d often get some really strong topics going. Sure the traffic was low because we didn’t bash people and kept it on the topic of music. Trolls tend to find that boring. The Internet is often a faceless troll storm of people trying to hurt others because they’re probably not that happy with their lives and want to take it out on whoever will give them the time. We put a lot of time into this and legitimately care about the end result/are passionate about the music enough to want to share our thoughts with the class. It has been fantastic to get back into this again and see that there are like-minded folks that are past the bullshit and just want to reach out to others in a constructive way. It probably has a lot to do with age… although I’m pretty mature for an 18 year old 😉

Thank you to all of you who are choosing to read our stuff and participate in this forum, for we really do enjoy seeing your lists and hearing your feedback as well.

Der, checked the ‘about’ link. I knew that didn’t seem right. Ya got me Marty, but I seriously had my suspicions. So much I had to go and check that. Just seemed off… hehe. I’ll blame that on my lack of sleep due to a new born…..yeah, now I feel better ….

Patrick > Congratulations! Good health and fortune to your newborn and more sleep to you hahaha…

Now playing:
Leviathan – The Tenth Sublevel of Suicide
As the snow falls for the very first time this year I’m in the mood for frostbitten and grim again. Wrest seems to be one of the very few in black metal who understand the importance and weight of a bass guitar.

Earlier:
Weapon – Embers and Revelations
More streamlined and less raw than their previous releases but all the more bonecrushing… Very very metal! \m/

Leviathan…. I’ve always felt like the odd man out when it comes to this project. I always felt it was overrated stuff. Rhythmically interesting as he’s predominantly a drummer, but the riffs and structures left much to be desired.

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